The Geography of Home:California’s Poetry of Place

Selected and Edited by Christopher Buckleyand Gary Young

An anthology of contemporary poetry devoted to California’s many landscapes—rural and urban, emotional and physical

The Geography of Home brings together the works of seventy-six important figures in contemporary California poetry, including Philip Levine, Peter Everwine, Mark Jarman, Adrienne Rich, Dennis Schmitz, Carolyn Kizer, Gary Soto, Al Young, Kim Addonizio, Charles Wright, Carol Muske, David St. John, Larry Levis, Robert Hass, Gary Snyder, William Everson, Gary Soto, Luis Omar Salinas, Diane Wakoski, Garrett Hongo, Jane Hirshfield, and Brenda Hillman. Through the multiple selections for each poet, we can witness connections to California, visions of the place poets have at one time or other called home. Additionally, the poets have written introductory statements expressly for this anthology that will speak to their history in California, and to the influence of the state on their poetry.

In this long-awaited collection, California’s unique and complex geography is examined, questioned, and ultimately celebrated, through forms as varied, dynamic, and compelling as the state itself.

Christopher Buckley is chair of the creative writing department at the University of California, Riverside. His ninth book of poems, Fall from Grace, was published in 1998. For his poetry he has received a NEA grant, a Fulbright award to Yugoslavia, four Pushcart Prizes, and two Gertrude B. Claytor Awards from the Poetry Society of America. He is the editor of On the Poetry of Philip Levine: Stranger to Nothing, and has published a nonfiction book, Cruising State: Growing Up in Southern California. With Christopher Merrill, he edited What Will Suffice: Contemporary American Poets on the Art of Poetry. He lives in Lompoc with his wife, artist Nadya Brown.

Gary Young is a poet and artist whose books include Hands, The Dream of a Moral Life, and Days. His book Braver Deeds won the Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize. He has received fellowships from the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and his print work is represented in many collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Getty Center for the Arts. He edits the Greenhouse Review Press from Santa Cruz, California.